


Heart to Heart (Xb)

by Waldo



Series: The Human Body [11]
Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Angst, Episode: s02e14 Grace Under Pressure, Established Relationship, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2006-07-30
Updated: 2006-07-30
Packaged: 2017-10-06 08:36:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/51733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Waldo/pseuds/Waldo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Radek's got a crush... which makes John realize how lucky he is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heart to Heart (Xb)

[ ](http://community.livejournal.com/sgdiverse_award/)

He ducked back inside and made his way to the infirmary. Just as the door slid open he realized that it might look a bit odd for him to be chasing down Carson at one in the morning.

"Can I help you, Colonel?" the night duty nurse asked from the cabinet she was restocking.

"Uh… just came down to check on McKay," he answered lamely.

"He's asleep. Finally. Doctor Beckett didn't want to give him a sedative after a head injury, but he seems to have finally wound down on his own." She cast a glance to the other end of the ward towards Rodney's bed, where John could see him curled up, sleeping soundly.

He nodded. "Beckett's not still on duty, is he?" John hoped to come off as casual, but wasn't sure. And wasn't a hundred percent sure he cared at that point either.

"No, he left a little over an hour ago. Actually he said something about checking on you and Dr. Zelenka."

John raised his eyebrows and said casually. "Did he? I'll have to catch him later." And before she could answer that, he turned on his heel and left. She didn't need to know that for him, 'later' was the approximately three and a half minutes it would take him to reach Carson's quarters.

Odds were good that after a full shift, made longer by treating Rodney once they'd finally gotten him home, that Carson was already dead to the world. So John opened the door without knocking and then stood in the doorway, letting the hallway light spill in and give him an idea of where things stood.

The light barely made it to the bed, but John could see a distinctly human shaped lump under the covers and Carson's laptop, usually playing music or a DVD when Carson was awake, was closed on the small desk on the other side of the room.

He stepped in, letting the door close behind him and waited for his eyes to adjust to the small amount of moonlight and ambient city light coming in through the window. Once he could make his way across the sparsely furnished room without banging his shins on anything, he stepped over to the small bathroom and shut the door behind him before turning on the lights at half power.

He pulled off his jacket and t-shirt and quickly washed his face before making a quick pass over his neck, chest and arms with the cloth. He pulled off his boots and tucked his socks into them before putting them under the sink pedestal and then hung his pants with his t-shirt and jacket on the hook next to the door.

He turned off the lights and crept over to the bed in just his boxers. Before he could crawl in, Carson muttered, "John? That you?"

Sheppard froze in place. "It damn well better be. If you have other people sneaking in here at night to crawl in bed with you, we need to have a talk."

There was just enough light for him to see Carson smiling against his pillow. "If I'd thought it'd been anyone else, I'd be going for that blasted gun you insist I keep in here."

John pulled the covers back and slid under them, spooning up against Carson's back. "Good."

Carson shuffled over to face him. "Where've you been?" he asked quietly. Then suddenly he realized that he sounded like he was nagging or being distrustful, "I mean… not that you have to tell me… I just meant…"

John leaned in and kissed him to stop the stammering. "Mostly I was out on a balcony talking to Radek. Then just… decompressing."

Carson nodded and found John's hand with his own, threading their fingers together and bringing their joined hands between their chests. "Radek seemed a little rattled earlier. Is he alright?"

"If you call having an unrequited crush blow up in your face 'okay', he's great," John answered.

"Crush?"

"He doesn't want anyone saying anything or trying to be 'helpful', so… you know, keep that in mind. 'Cause it's _my_ ass he'll kick."

Carson nodded. "Alright."

"He has a thing for Rodney."

Carson flopped back against the pillows. "Oh dear. I knew they were close friends, I didn't know that he…" Rodney was one of his dearest friends, but Carson couldn't imagine trying to be in a relationship with someone that self-centered. He couldn't imagine that anyone would be able to get Rodney's attention to start a relationship with him with anything less subtle than a brick to the head, for one. And he had a hard time imagining Radek being willing to take such a risk. Not given how close they'd still have to work together after such an attempt if didn't pan out.

John shifted so that he was lying along Carson's side. "Yeah. That's one of the things I was thinking about outside tonight." He brushed a hand across Carson's cheek. "I don't take you for granted, do I?"

Carson tilted his head, studying John in the moonlight, wondering where all the introspection had come from. "I've never once thought that."

"'Cause Radek asked tonight… apparently Rodney's started to do the math, and so I told him - Radek. You know, about us. And the more we talked the more I realized that I could very easily have been in his place." John stroked his thumb over Carson's cheek and leaned down to kiss him for a long time, as passionately as he knew how.

"Hm…" Carson moaned into the kiss. "I think we need to stop talking about Radek now."

John slid his hands under Carson's t-shirt, rucking it up under his arms. "What should we talk about?" John asked as he began licking and sucking on Carson's nipple.

Carson arched off the bed as the last vestiges of sleep disappeared as John's tongue sent sparks of electricity from his nipple straight to his groin. "I think… I think talking is highly over-rated right about now," he managed breathily.

John kissed and nipped his way across Carson's chest to the other nipple. "Is it?"

Carson's hands had found their way into John's hair, alternately twisting and smoothing as John worked Carson's nipples into hard buds. "Oh aye. I think you've found a much better use for your mouth right now."

John laughed and reached up with one hand to tug on the sleeve of Carson's t-shirt. "Take this off," he suggested.

Carson arched up, reached behind himself and pulled it off, tossing it on the floor and flopping back on the bed as fast as he could.

"Impatient much?" John asked as he wiggled his hands under Carson's back, laying himself over his lover and kissing him before he had a chance to answer.

When they broke for air Carson gave him a cheeky grin. "I've been laying here waiting for _someone_ to get home for almost two hours now."

John was shucking his own boxers as he answered, "You could have called me on the radio." He didn't comment on Carson referring to his own quarters as 'home' for John. He wasn't sure it wasn't just a slip of the tongue – since Carson was home – or if Carson meant something else by it. But he really wasn't going to stop what they were starting for a State of the Relationship talk.

Carson rolled his eyes as he helped John push his boxers down, being sure to let his hand come in contact with as much skin as possible as he did. "Oh, yes, because calling you to come to my quarters at midnight wouldn't have appeared odd to anyone."

John finished kicking his shorts off and left them to get lost in the sheets and blankets that were getting more and more tangled as they went. "There's such a thing as a private line around here."

They tag-teamed Carson's underwear next. "I figured if you wanted to be alone it was best to let you be. I knew that once I got off duty, you'd find me here when you were ready to be around people."

All clothing now disposed of, John began kissing his way down Carson's body again. "I'm getting way too predictable," he muttered as he passed Carson's navel.

Carson was completely hard by the time John was licking and kissing the protrusion of Carson's hipbone. Carson squirmed under John's hands causing the head of his cock to bounce against John's cheek. John had to close his eyes before they had a less than amusing encounter with the punchline of "you'll put someone's eye out with that".

John slid further down the bed, letting his tongue and lips slide further down, until he could gently tug on Carson's balls with his lips. Carson arched and wiggled under the stimulation, his breath coming out in gasps and pants and half-formed words.

He thought Carson was going to come before John ever got his cock in his mouth the way his breathing sped up and his hands flopped and flailed on the sheets when John sucked one of his balls into his mouth.

"John… oh god, John, please…" Carson had no idea what he wanted. More? Before his head exploded? Less? So this could go on and on and on? "Oh god, yes…"

Gently releasing him, John shifted on the bed again, getting comfortable. He kissed Carson's belly once before sucking the tip of his cock into his mouth. John stiffened his tongue and poked into the slit before softening it and rolling it all the way around the sensitive head. Carson's back arched and John could feel him tensing in opposition to his body's desire to thrust. He appreciated the restraint, but was determined to destroy it. He wrapped his hand around the root of Carson's cock, holding him still while he slid his mouth over shaft, sucking hard as he felt the tip bump against his soft palate.

"Oh bloody hell!" was all the warning John got before Carson stiffened and arched off the bed. John carefully moved with him, his arms sliding under Carson when he arched so that he could hold him when he came down. He swallowed a couple of times, wiping his face on the edge of the sheet inconspicuously as he moved up to wrap his arms around Carson. He spotted a glass of water on the bedside table. Once Carson seemed to have control of his faculties again, John kissed his cheek. "Hand me that, would you?" he asked nodding to the mug.

Carson handed it over and John quickly downed the half-cup of room temperature water. As he leaned over Carson to put it back, Carson grabbed his head and steered him down for a long, leisurely kiss. When they broke the kiss Carson asked quietly, "And you?"

John reached up and carefully unthreaded Carson's hand from his hair and kissed his palm before lowering it to his very hard, very wet cock.

Carson shifted onto his side to get a better angle and began by slowly dragging his fingertips over John's shaft, soft, slow, gentle touches. Carson glanced up at John's face. John was biting his lip, looking for all the world like the gentleness was going to be his undoing. Carson continued to tease until John began to beg. "Carson, more, please, come on… please."

Leaning in to kiss him again, Carson wrapped his hand firmly around John. "Like this?" he asked applying pressure and beginning to pump up and down at a slightly less leisurely pace, but clearly showing that he was in no hurry to end this.

"Oh… guh…" John reached up and captured Carson's head and pressed his lips against his in a desperate, hungry kiss. "God, more, please." He leaned his forehead against Carson's, his hand in Carson's hair making sure Carson couldn't pull away. Not that he showed any signs of wanting to. John didn't even attempt to kiss him again as he felt his breathing speed up in time with the speed of Carson's hand. When Carson began passing his thumb over the slick top, John squeezed his eyes shut and contemplated doing multiplication tables or state capitals to try and prolong the moment, but before he could decide on a method of distraction it was all over. "Oh Carson, yes!"

Carson kept his hand tight around John's cock as he came. John wondered if there would be finger marks burned into his flesh, everything was so intense, so hot, where their skin touched.

When he could think with the big brain again, he flopped over on his back, panting. He rolled his head to the side to see Carson propped up on one elbow watching him. He gave him a goofy smile. "Worth waiting up for me?" he asked cheekily.

Carson just laughed and leaned over and kissed him again before swinging his feet off of bed.

"Where you going?" John asked lazily.

"Get a washcloth. And some water. You want something else to drink?" he called from where he'd made it to the bathroom.

John, still buzzing a little, had to think about it for a minute. "Um… sure. Juice, water, whatever you've got." He could hear Carson rooting around in the small refrigerator in the kitchenette and then soft footsteps that brought Carson back to the bed.

Carson handed John the wet cloth and let him clean himself up before taking it back and throwing it in the general vicinity of the laundry hamper. He took a long drink from a bottle of lemonaide before handing it over to John. "No juice, hopefully this will do."

John drank half of it in one gulp. "Yep. Just fine," he said handing it back and curling up with his head on Carson's lap, his arms around Carson's thighs. "Go figure, I'm exhausted now."

Carson took another drink of the lemonaide before recapping it and putting it next to his alarm clock on the bedside table. With his hands free he began gently carding his fingers through John's hair. "I can't imagine why. Coming up with a plan to save Rodney, saving Rodney, keeping Radek from losing his mind while saving Rodney, then some pretty spectacular sex… why on Earth would you be tired?"

John reached up and pulled Carson down into a kiss. "It was pretty spectacular, wasn't it?"

John laughed when Carson blushed.

"Speaking of Radek," John said after a minute.

"Yes?"

"Do you think McKay could go for him?"

Carson sighed, going back to petting John's hair. "I don't have any idea. Rodney has a habit of talking about people he wants but will never have. Samantha Carter, that Allina lass that screwed him out of the ZPM…"

"The Wraith-First-Officer-whatever on the _Aurora_," John added ruefully.

"Aye, exactly. People he'll never have. It's like when most people fancy a movie star or football player. The only time I've ever heard him talk about actually being involved with someone was some girl in his grade seven math class who gave him mono. And my guess is that when you're in bed sleeping for a month, that tends to put a pretty big stop on the relationship. I don't know who he'd go for in a practical sense." Carson was finding new and interesting ways to sculpt John's hair as they talked.

John shifted, staring up at the ceiling. "Do you think… I mean, maybe he's never… That would be kind of sad, wouldn't it? Even for McKay."

"Like that movie – _The Forty Year Old Virgin_?" Carson asked. "Aye, that'd be sad. But I don't know, like I said, he's only ever talked about that one girl. But Rodney doesn't talk about himself much, unless it's about how smart he is or how allergic he is."

"Well, I promised Zelenka that _I'd_ stay out of it…" John said, a definite suggestion in his voice.

"Oh, no you don't," Carson said, giving a slight tug on the hair he was playing with. "I do not need to find out that my lights will only work ten minutes out of every hour or that my shower only produces ice cold water because I've gone sticking my nose somewhere it doesn't belong."

"Come on, Carson!" John complained, "The guy is miserable. If we could at least tell him to hang it up…? Move on…?"

Carson sighed. "We're going to need to get them on speaking terms first."

John flinched. "Radek said Rodney lit into him in the infirmary."

Carson smoothed down the spikes he'd created, petting John over and over again, calming himself. It bothered him more than he'd realized that two of his very good friends were so at odds. "I've seen Rodney pretty upset before, John, but this was… I don't think he was this cross with me when I detoxed him off that Wraith drug."

John had heard the whole of that story. From Carson, from Elizabeth and from several nurses. That had been one ugly scene. If this was worse… "You work on getting Rodney to apologize and I'll work on getting Radek to stay in a room with him long enough to hear it?" he suggested.

"Let's give them a couple of days to just… get some distance. Rodney's going to be restricted to quarters for a couple of days so I don't have to worry about him running out and compounding the head injury he already has. Once he's feeling better and he's calmed down I'll try talking to him."

John nodded. "Mmkay," he said through a yawn.

"You need some sleep," Carson observed.

John nodded, still in Carson's lap.

Carson shook his head fondly at him. "Come on, up here," Carson said, tugging John up so that once Carson had lain down John's head rested on Carson's shoulder. "Okay?"

John nodded against him again, his eyes already closed.

Carson stroked his hair one more time and kissed his forehead before grabbing the blanket and settling it around them.

"Love you," John whispered as he started to drift off.

"I love you too. And I'm very, very grateful you made it back in one piece today."

John tightened the arm around Carson's chest for a second in acknowledgment, but a very long day had caught up to him and sleep had already claimed him.


End file.
